I’m not sure about you Dear Reader, but I don’t think that my nightmares are quite your garden variety. They’re not of monsters or catastrophes, they’re actually filled with visions of me living back in Tokyo and being lost and unable to find my way home. I haven’t had that nightmare for a while, at least for a few years and friends that have analysed it (don’t you love how everyone is qualified to analyse a dream if not a person).
They have suggested that the reason why I no longer have those dreams is because I used to be searching for something to do in my life where I fit in and enjoyed it and advertising wasn’t doing it for me and I was essentially lost for all practical purposes. I can concede that this is a rather feasible explanation and the fact that the nightmares about being lost stopped after I started the blog might be further evidence supporting this.
I used to also have real life nightmares of screwing up a recipe and although they didn’t permeate my dreams, they used to permeate my real life when cooking and I would panic. I first came across this recipe for brownie cookies at the Donna Hay 10th Birthday party celebrations recently held at the Museum of Contemporary Art. She has also launched her new iPad version which may also help those of you overseas that love the magazine but find waiting for a copy too hard (and it is free to download for the first month thanks to Destination NSW).
Photo: James Mills
After Donna made her speech they wheeled out a table of sweets to much oohing and aahing. The sight of all of those cakes, macarons, cookies and sweets brought forth a somewhat slow at first but then determined surge of people that wanted to try some goodies from the display. Apart from trying a slice of the chocolate cake that currently features on the cover, there were also trays of brownie cookie sandwich with a peanut butter filling going around-and I happily succumbed. They were so lusciously crunchy and decadent that I knew instantly that I wanted to make them.
So the next day with the recipe I started off making the cookies. I decided to do a slightly different version with salted caramel buttercream instead of the peanut butter filling but both fillings have a similar texture and a lovely saltiness to them to balance the rich chocolate brownie cookie. I’m not usually one to eat batter-to be honest it doesn’t do much for me but this rather unusual texture made me dip my finger in and take a taste. It was fantastically good and I could have served up the batter by itself and had some very happy eaters. The batter was thick and I tried shaping them in rounds and baked them. And then I opened up the oven to horror.
They were one giant cookie!
Arrgh a monster cookie! Hmm not bad an idea in itself…
It could have been me as the original recipe specified a whisking time of 15 minutes until the eggs and sugar were light and pale but I found that the eggs were very light, pale and thick after 5 minutes (so I made another batch of the cookies and whisked them for 15 minutes but obtained the same result). I was determined that it wasn’t a complete waste so while they were still hot and with burning hot finger tips, I cut out rounds with a cookie cutter and allowed them to cool. The instructions didn’t say how far apart these needed to be and apparently they needed to be quite far apart (about 2 inches apart minimum) as they spread enormously.
I found my version tasted different from Donna’s-that was due to changing around the buttercream flavour but it was also due to me not reading the recipe properly and putting in almost double the amount of chocolate instead of reserving some. By all means if you want it more cookie like than brownie you can use Donna’s in the magazine (using a total of only 350g of chocolate in the cookie and melting 200g/7ozs of this and then using the rest as chips). I actually did like this more brownie version although I will admit I went a bit too heavy in the salted caramel buttercream (what’s new?). It was thick, chewy with a crunchy crust and luscious melted chocolate bits and a contrast from the silky salted buttercream filling. Both had merits and you certainly wouldn’t kick either out of bed on a lonely night.
So tell me Dear Reader, what sort of nightmares do you have or what fears do you have? I also have the fear of running out of food (which is why my pantry is always bursting with food).
Brownie Sandwich Cookies With Salted Buttercream Filling
Adapted from Donna Hay magazine
- 350g/12 ozs. dark chocolate, chopped
- 50g/1.7ozs Lindt caramel chocolate, broken into chips (or their caramel and sea salt if you can get it)
- 40g/1.5 ozs butter
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup (150g) caster superfine sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (35g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- Cocoa for dusting at the end (optional)
Salted caramel buttercream filling
- 1/4 cup caster or superfine sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup cream
- 175g/6ozs unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 2 cups icing or powdered sugar, sifted
1. Place the 350g or 12 ozs of chocolate and butter in a microwave proof bowl and heat for 60 second bursts at 50% power being careful to stir between times. Or melt in a saucepan on low heat making sure not to burn the chocolate.
2. Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk for 15 minutes until pale and creamy. Stir through the flour, baking powder and chocolate mixture as well as caramel chocolate chips until combined and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Warning: not enough of a space between cookies!
3. Spoon tablespoons of the mixture onto a baking parchment lined baking tray at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes until puffed and cracked on top. Cool completely on trays (they are delicate to move when they are hot).
4. While the brownie cookies are cooling make the salted caramel frosting. In a heavy bottomed small saucepan, dissolve the sugar into the water and then increase heat to medium and allow to turn a golden caramel colour-it will take about 5 minutes to reach the desired colour (but don’t forget that caramel still cooks a little after taken off the heat). Add the cream and salt to the caramel and stir well to combine as the caramel will naturally harden and pool together. Allow to cool completely (or place it in a small metal bowl in the fridge or freezer to hurry it along).
5. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a beater attachment, beat the butter for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy. Turn down the speed to low and add the sifted icing or powdered sugar and beat for 3-4 minutes. Then add the cooled salted caramel and beat until smooth. If it is too liquid, place in the fridge, I found it just right to use on the cookies. Spoon one brownie cookie with the salted caramel frosting and then sandwich on top with another cookie. Sieve cocoa on top if desired.
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73 Comments | Add your own
Brownie+sandwich+cookie in one! I suppose this is about being efficient, killing three birds with one stone
Oh my goodness yum – they look delicious with the salted caramel and sound delicious with the peanut butter filling. How could I choose. This is the type of sweet I love to eat, more the stuff of dreams not nightmares…..even the monster cookies does not scare me.
Oh, those are fabulous! I bet you cannot stop with one.
Cheers,
Rosa
Ahhh those pictures are torturing mee! I will definitely need 2 try that recipe, after all nothing beats a brownie except a brownie with icing!
Whoa, these look totally amazing! What a decadent and delicious dessert.
LOL, gotta just love those giant cookie blobs, they are the best! My larder is always spilling over with food too, Lorraine. The good thing about messing up a recipe is that things are usually still quite tasty, even not glamorous enough to be photographed.
I just had breakfast but now I’m hungry again! (for those brownie sandwich cookies)
You know, I would never consider an amorphous chocolate cookie, a disaster.
So your ‘before’ and ‘after’ gets an A+ from me!
one word……BIRDS! Ugh they freak me out lol!
love your brownie save..and they look so perfect with your ‘special’ cutting method..why bother making separate ones when they look so good this way and all the left over bits from cutting become the cooks reward..
nightmares? i still have the occasional one where i’m working in a previous job and i can’t get my work done..the job was like that in real life and i’m grateful that i no longer have to work so hard..
Cookie monster – splurted my morning coffee at that! I am rather lucky to be fairly fearless. The only thing I am afraid of is these terrible home invasions. Perhaps I need to keep some cookie monsters in the house, just in case
I think double chocolate and the salted caramel filling are great changes! You can never have too much chocolate. I haven’t had nightmares for years while asleep, although real life presents plenty of them.
Those cookies would not last one night here in my house. Everyone loves brownies.
I am so glad other people don’t read the recipe properly too. I do it all the time.
I have anxiety nightmares where I forget something important and everyone is angry with me and I can’t fix it. Usually work related.
Lorraine they seriously look delectable. To think that I just made some brownies yesterday. Brownies and ice cream has to be the best of both worlds though
I recently won a hard-fought war over macarons. Five attempts later and I think I’ve got it!
Oooh ahhh these look delicious!!
Aww man, Lorraine these look so scrum-diddly-umtious!
Hilarious! Donna has these Brownies in her 10th anniversary collectors addition and also she has a recipe for something else which requires the salted caramel buttercream, So I too replaced the peanut butter with the salted caramel filling when I made these. So yummy but yes indeed difficult!
I love that you share your mishaps as well as your wins. We are all human
xx
When I saw the cookies I starting thinking how did she obtained a perfect round? You are so smart…!!!
I do not dream, well, I cannot remember my dream after I wake up, but my most terrible fear is an earthquake and in Peru we have a lot.
OMG WANT.
The other day I was given her brownie packet mix and was all OMG BROWNIE PACKET MIX? Surely you jest?
And you know what? It was AWESOME.
That’s so funny that you fear running out of food! Last week I had a nightmare that a snake was chasing me. Well on Sunday I met that snake! I do occasionally see black snakes near where I live. This particular snake wasn’t chasing me luckily – it was just running beside me! The snake had raised its head and was moving along at a rapid pace. Scary! I’ve only ever seen slow and sleepy black snakes before.
The cookies look amazing and would be very easy to make gluten free.
I love that you just cut them and used them any way. The buttercream sounds like a fabulous combination! xoxo Mum
Mmmm salted caramel. I could just eat the buttercream and skip the cookie stage!
My son is due home today at lunch time after finishing hi last year 12 exam – I have promised him a home-made treat & it looks like I’ve just found the one I’ll be making. Thanks Lorraine!
the monster cookie reminds me of the blob! *giggles*
cute.
For the first half of my life I did not dream at all: now I do most nights, but they are soft and sweet and I have never had a nightmare
! I have no fears on land, tho’ don’t like storms much, but sea travel and I do not agree 
! I don’t get seasick, just somehow always have a premonition the ship is going to end up at the bottom of the ocean !!! By the same token, take me sailing on Sydney Harbour or Pittwater in the roughest conditions and methinks it’s super fun! Funny peculiar, but definitely!
A actually love the big one. Just make another, slather it with that FAB buttercream, sandwich it and give it to me on a chopping board with a knife and fork
who am I kidding, I’ll use my fingers 
OMG! that looks fantastic! i dont think there will be any left if i made them! YUM!
Oh my, my stomach knotted in anticipatory glee just reading the name of this post. These look and sound absolutely wonderful. You’ve done it again, Lorraine!
Oh! I was wondering how you got the edges so neat! Salted caramel and chocolate is such a great combination, though my cookie sandwiches tend to be filled with ice-cream instead of buttercream in the warmer months.
I agree with TeawithHazel- the cut outs looks sensational. The 15 min whisking time is excessive – you wree much more polite about it than I was :-/
I’m scared of losing my daughter in a shopping centre after it happened for real a couple of months ago…we hold hands ALWAYS now.
They STILL look YUM to me!
I dream like in real life I see!
You sound so much like me re “the pantry thing”
I have been known to pick up the phone (thinking friends are calling for me to organise thier next party lol)…and thought it was strange there was no ring!
Yum what amazing cookies -What is it about salt that makes sweet things taste that little bit better?
It’s funny that you mention nightmares as last night I dreamed that I showed up to my new job in my pjs and had to quickly piece a suit together out of things I could find in a shoe shop! Hope Monday doesn’t ACTUALLY turn out like that..
Ingenious of you to cut the cookie blob with a cookie cutter, no-one would have guessed it if you didn’t disclose Lorraine
Wish you had posted this last week, have started my diet
Don’t have many nightmares any more but I used to dream of falling off a cliff and would wake myself in fright, wonder what it means?
Oh my God those look soooo good. Is there a house for sale next to yours? I’m buying it!
They look SO nice I m GOING to make some soon
nightmares…. It’s a big weird I never really dream ~ or maybe I do but I don’t remember 
Oh they look so decadent & indulgent! Yum!
No way would I be up for 15 minutes of whisking, I bet you were annoyed when the result was the same!
Mmmmmm….. MUST HAVE COOKIE!!!
oh wow….I would think that brownie + buttercream would be fat+sugar overkill, but then you add the savory touch of salt into the filling…Very very nice!!
Brownies are the best thing ever! Not to mention sandwiched with buttercream! Delish!
wow in sharing this kitchen nightmare you have given me a great idea for how to deal with cookie spread – I have just cut cookies that spread into each other into awkward jagged shapes but never thought to use cutters – now the question for you is – what happened to the scraps
I imagine they would be great in a black forest parfait
The cookies looks really decadent, Yum! If something like the ‘big cookie’ happens to me I think my husband would not notice, he would probably just think that I baked a giant cookie for him
. Most mistakes can be ‘corrected’ so I am quite relaxed in the kitchen 
Ciao
Alessandra
The fear of running out of food was passed on to me from my mum. She and I always have masses of food left over after we entertain. I love it though because you never really feel up to cooking the next day and leftovers are so exciting!
I don’t think you can ever have too much salted caramel. These look delicious.
Double chocolate is never a mistake, just a lucky accident
I used to have nightmares of a jelly monster, but I can still eat it occasionally- maybe I should eat it more often then there would be no more monsters!
In my life (so far) I never had anything like this. Wow brownie sandwich cookies look REALLY delicious. I love the salted buttercream you used too. Really rich flavor… yum.
—My ass just got a bit larger.
These look amazing. I love the idea of salted-buttercream between chocolate.
Oh, My!
It sort of solves two cravings in one, Lorraine… but you already knew that, didn’t you?
–I dream I have another room in my house that I keep forgetting about…I open the door and think “Why don’t I go in this room?” I ‘ve had this several times. Mmm, I wonder what it means? X
This is what I see on day 2 of my ‘healthy eating’… gah! It looks amazing.
I almost can’t believe you replaced the peanut butter element, but I make an exception for that salted buttercream
So many things to comment on!
1) these look AMAZING
2) as does the giant cookie
3) I tend to have very random dreams, no real pattern
4) Donna looks fab! hehe.
5) you’re great
Heidi xo
Yay, finally a savoury cookie for my not-so-sweet tooth! Thx NQN!
I have these on my to cook list! I love your cookie blob!! I have another chocolate cookie I make, and if you place the cookies too close together before baking you end up with something similar. I learned the hard way!! I love the salted caramel buttercream.
Wow these looks wonderful and very decadent! I like how their not too thick, so you can still take a dainty bite. Yum!
I want one of these for dinner!
They look glorious! How many does this recipe make?
Hi Jessica-it made me about six sandwich cookies but just bear in mind that I cut them out from one large cookie and there was some left so if you baked them with quite a bit of space between them you should get more
I think it’s great that you can turn a ‘disaster’ into a fabulous cookie. Am guilty of not reading a recipe completely before embarking on the journey to make something, although it always helps to have a tip relating to how far apart to set cookies on the baking tray. Nevertheless, Lorraine, you are almost perfect sometimes and absolutely perfect most of the time! Can’t wait to try these.
The other day I woke up really disoriented from a dream involving dragons, castles, and boys. Normally I just have boring nightmares about things I’m worried about in life though!
These creations would, I’m sure, chase all nightmares away
they look delicious! I had a nightmare recently where I went to bake a cake but every single egg in the carton had a crack in it and I had to throw them out. And it was one of those never ending packets that only come in dreams. I woke up exhausted and frustrated!
You had me at ‘Brownie Sandwich Cookie…’
!!!!
Need I say more!
*DROOL*
If you hadn’t shown the photo of the ‘monster cookie’ I would never have guessed it looking at your perfectly formed and filled cookies! Well done.
These look amazing! The Glam Teens love Blondies stuffed with Oreos so these should go down a treat. I’ve printed the recipe to try at the weekend. Thankyou GG
Still stunning. My nightmares frequently involve falling, or sharks. I think that means that I really don’t like falling and that I’m terrified of sharks. But maybe they mean something else…?
OMG! I must have these! Salted caramel buttercream filling?? I just about died when I read this post and looked at the photos. They look sooo perfect, so incredible.so so, ummm…? lol Looking for a word to describe how desperately I want them, is futile!
That said, I just had a nightmare last night where Anthony Bourdain was trying to kill me with a rabid armadillo. I know..no idea..makes no sense LOL
haha I love this story. Things do not always go right with recipes but that is no reason to give up on them. I have dropped cakes on the floor, had ganache separate and made lumpy cheesecake! These brownie cookies look great, might have to try them for my next work morning tea.
Lorraine, you sure have found your calling.Love this recipe and so happy about the Donna Hay Magazine going on line. I’m so up for the “salted” buttercream.
oh my….YUM!!!!
personally, i think you should have made two giant cookies and sandwiched them together…hehe.
I may just have to make these as dessert on the weekend…perhaps salted caramel icecream filling would go down a treat…with some raspberries to cut the sweetness…
That looks amazing!!
excellent these leave ice cream cookie sandwiches in the dust!
They look amazing to me and have bookmarked this to try. I either have nightmares about work (ugh) or actual baking disasters.
Salted caramel buttercream sounds fantastic! Your changes produced tasty results. Way to go, Lorraine:)
Um….. Yum! Another recipe to try.
That’s one of the best saves ever!
I just got my hands on the magazine and this immediately caught my eye. Must make them when I’m back in London!! They look luscious.
I also spy the gorgeous cake from the magazine cover. Lucky you, getting to attend the party.
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